SIDE BAR

May 2005

Military Researchers Launch War Against Hidden Explosives

By Sandra I. Erwin

At least 75 Navy scientists have been assigned to work full-time on technologies to detect and neutralize the improvised explosives devices that have killed and maimed hundreds of U.S. troops in Iraq.

The Office of Naval Research also shifted $27 million of its $1.76 billion annual budget to these programs, according to Rear Adm. Jay M. Cohen, chief of naval research.

ONR’s work is one piece of a larger Defense Department effort, called the IED Task Force, a $60-million a year operation created to find technologies in the government and commercial sectors. Scientists at ONR focus on basic research, rather than actual products, Cohen explains during a presentation to the Navy League.

The ultimate goal, he says, is to replicate the mechanics and physics of a dog’s nose. It will take a machine with an advanced sense of smell to detect IEDs at standoff range and at a rapid pace. But Cohen says that technology is not yet available. He does not expect any major breakthroughs for at least five to 10 years.

Of the $27 million, $15 million is for in-house research, while $12 million will be awarded in contracts to universities, laboratories and private firms.

Under a Defense Department “small business innovation research” program, ONR awarded 39 contracts to companies that submitted promising technologies to counter IEDs.

The proposals are being evaluated and some will be selected to continue to the next phase, he says. Examples include a sensor to locate wire-detonated explosives, a satellite-based detector and an X-ray device that can see through cars.

Cohen’s deputy, Marine Brig. Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, cautions that not every technology works as advertised.

“We have to be careful that we know what the products can do, versus what’s in Powerpoint slides,” he says.

Waldhauser, who also serves as the commander of the U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, gets loads of e-mails and phone calls from Marines in Iraq who help him get the “ground truth” on what works and what doesn’t.

One of the most effective ways to combat IEDs is to find them and destroy them before the insurgents have a chance to use them, Waldhauser says.

Electronic jammers are valuable, but their performance is hard to measure, he notes. Anecdotal evidence indicates that jammers in many instances have disabled IEDs. The Navy and Marine Corps now are working on a study that would document successes and failures.

The Warfighting Lab and ONR, meanwhile, have spent the past two years developing protective gear, such as Kevlar pants, worn by machine gun operators on trucks who often have gotten shot in the legs.

The rise in facial injuries caused by IED blasts prompted the design of several “face shield” devices, which proved too cumbersome, Waldhauser says. “We tried it, but it wasn’t well received.” ONR came up with a more useful solution: a lightweight motorcycle-style helmet that covers the entire face.

To protect Humvee crews from suicide bombers, the lab customized a machine gun with a remotely controlled camera so Marines can more quickly identify and shoot an approaching bomber, Waldhauser explains.

Researchers at ONR, meanwhile, have yet to achieve much success with an explosive-resistant coating sprayed on Humvees. That technology doesn’t work today, he says. “Spray-on IED protection may come around.”

Among the technologies that have earned positive reviews is the Marine Dragon Runner robot, which the lab designed for urban combat. It usually is tossed inside buildings to scope the area before Marines storm in. But in Iraq, Marines also have employed the Dragon Runner as an IED detonator.

Researchers at the Warfighting Lab, additionally, have tried to come up with better technologies to defend against mortar strikes. The best they could provide was a lightweight counter-mortar radar, Waldhauser says. As is often the case, however, Marine ingenuity helped solve the problem, he adds. Troops built concrete bunkers and covered them with tents. “Sometimes you leave it to those guys in theater and they figure it out,” says Waldhauser.

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